Attributed to Shiba Kokan (1747-1818)
Ink and colour on paper laid down on a paper scroll
184 x 64 cm (Scroll) 117 x 54.5 cm (Painting)
The scroll has, 'Dutchman painting by Shiba Kokan' written in Japanese on the outside of the scroll in one hand, along with “Nagasaki Resident” in another hand. If this painting really is by Kokan, it would be a heretofore undiscovered work by him. The 'Dutchman' is standing in a fanciful environment of columns and tiles, with a Japanese clock hanging on the wall, painted in an attempt at a European perspective. He wears a large feathered hat, a Dutch plooikraag (neck-ruff), holding a spear and is carrying a (Japanese?) sword. His whole attire is very exotic, particularly his stockings, knee-caps and shoes. This 'Dutchman' is a stranger indeed!
Part of the Japan collection.
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Strange-looking Westerners and their odd garments were a favoured subject in Japanese art, on ceramics, in paintings, prints and netsuke. The Japanese word for prostitute is ‘keisei’, and possibly the Dutch living on Deshima corrupted that Japanese word to ‘keesje’, for prostitute, and ‘kezen’, for making love, as depicted in the Japanese shunga, or ‘spring pictures.’ For a scroll of shunga, erotic pictures of Dutchmen and Japanese women engaged in sex at the Dutch trading post of Deshima, see Zebregs&Röell, Kawahara Keiga studio paintings, Maastricht, June 2020, pg 102-111.